XML Publication Workflows for Standards › ... · Clean up manuscript and style paragraphs ... DITA is designed to write discrete, typed topics for reuse in multiple publications

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XML Publication Workflows for Standards

Presented by

Bruce D. Rosenblum

CEO

Inera Incorporated

SES, 17 April 2013


The Publisher’s Conundrum

Gutenberg: (Surveying the Frankfurt Book Fair)

“This commodity must be as precious as gold!”

Gates: “Cheap as dirt, actually. And on its way out.

It’s called print. You invented it, or so history claims”

John Updike

Print: A Dialog (1995)


Remember When…


This Is Not Your Father’s Book


Transformative Technologies…


…And Expanding Device Array…


…Demand New Product Features…

Automatic reflowable text

Richly hyperlinked

Dynamically updated

Accessible for visually impaired

Reading a standard PDF on a small touch-screen

device is not good enough!


… And A New Publication Foundation

XML:

Foundation for ePub, HTML5, Kindle

Automatic metadata sharing

PDF generation

Yuck!

(We know you’ve been trying to avoid it for years)

(Sorry… you can’t hide any longer)


XML Facilitates Multi-Platform Publishing


XML Is Not Easy

XML does not "happen"

XML requires

New publication workflow

New software tools

New production training

XML requires deliberate and thoughtful choices


Agenda

XML overview

ISO case study

XML workflow choices

XML quality

XML standard DTDs

Where to go next


What Is XML?

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/

Subset of ISO 8879

Describes a method to markup document structure

Independent of document format

Important companion standards

Unicode: http://www.unicode.org/

Standard for representing text characters in all languages

MathML: http://www.w3.org/Math/

Standard for markup of mathematics

http://www.unicode.org/

http://www.w3.org/Math/


What Does XML Look Like?

It looks like HTML

Because HTML is one "flavor" of XML <!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<body>

<h1>My First Heading</h1>

<p>My first paragraph includes a Greek beta:

β.</p>

</body>

</html>


HTML Code and View


XML Versus HTML

HTML is mostly about format

What does the web page "look like"

No semantic tags available

XML: "eXtensible"

Define your own tags (Document Type Definition)

Semantic markup (e.g. terms and definitions)

Define your own business rules


Who Uses XML?

Journal publishers

Widely used (> 80% of journals)

Huge growth from 1995 to 2005

Book publishers

More recent adoption

Key drivers: ePub, production efficiency

Standards publishers

Not yet widely adopted for standards publication


Case Study: ISO

ISO before 2012

ISO STD template for authoring

In-house "clean-up" of STD template use

Word PDF conversion


ISO PDF Workflow Issues

ISO STD template

Varying quality of use: 0 to 100% application

Increasing Word security issues

Editorial and production

Extensive time to format for PDF conversion

Word is not a page-layout application

Slow publication times

Published product

Not suitable for eReaders

No rich hyperlinks


ISO XML Initiatives: 2012

XML-based production workflow

XML technology in-house

XML back-catalog conversion

Outsourced

XML-driven Online Browsing Platform (OBP)

https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/


ISO OBP: Search


ISO OBP: Results


ISO OBP: Look Inside


ISO OBP: Limited Content Access


ISO OBP: Hyperlinked Cites


ISO OBP: Link Out


ISO OBP: Search Results


ISO OBP: View Snippets


ISO OBP Value

Better user experience

Faceted search

More information

Richly hyperlinked

Broader use of standards through better access


Value of XML to ISO

Catalyst for positive change

Business rules codified

Refocuses team on high-value content editing

Permits some production outsourcing

Faster publication times

Significant cost savings


But How Do I Get XML?

OBP is cool

But how do I get there?

…rewind

Re-engineer publication workflow


Where In The Workflow?

You can introduce XML at:

Authoring

Before editing

Before composition

Post-publication

Each point has pros and cons


The Original XML Dream

Authors create XML manuscripts

Editors edit XML manuscripts

XML single-source publication

Print

eBooks

Derivative products


The Author Reality

Authors use

Microsoft Word

Word Perfect

LaTeX


The Author Reality

Most Authors

Do not think structure

Do not like production tasks

Outside Authors

Brilliant subject matter experts

Hard to train and support

Even harder to control

Can’t get IT to install XML editing tools


The Word Macro Problem

Word macros are cool, but…

Hard to write

Smart authors out-smart idiot-proof macros

Macros grow ever-larger to plug holes

Larger macros require more training

Hard to support

Multiple versions of Word

Hard to install

Ever-greater IT security requirements


Post-Publication XML

Author submits Word manuscript

Edited in Word

Typeset (InDesign/Quark/FrameMaker)

Proof and typeset corrections

Publish print and PDF

Create XML/ePub from PDF


Post-Publication XML Issues

Advantages

No workflow changes

Disadvantages

Quality of XML unchecked

Extra production time and cost

Errors discovered in XML creation

It’s not an integrated workflow

Almost essential to outsource


Managing Outsource XML Vendors

Develop XML markup standards

Test several vendors

Compare results to tag same standard

Select on quality, not cost

Provide vendors with QA tools

Recheck ongoing vendor work


Post-Publication ePub Issues

ePub created from PDF often lacks

Rich metadata of XML file

Internal hyperlinks to footnotes, references, etc.

Section 508 accessibility compliance (float positions,

table scope attributes, etc.)

Broken hyperlinks

Especially extracted from multi-column text


XML First Workflow

Accept Word manuscript from author

Convert manuscript to XML

Edit XML manuscript

Typeset XML

Proof and typeset corrections in XML

Create final PDF, ePub, etc.


Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

Only one file conversion

File is continually validated to DTD

Disadvantages

Requires XML editing software for all editors

Training is expensive

Freelance editors not practical

Editors work amidst XML tags or XML editing customization is expensive


XML “Middle” Workflow

Accept Word manuscript from author

Clean up manuscript and style paragraphs

Edit in Microsoft Word

Convert Word to XML

Typeset from XML

Proof and typeset corrections

Create final PDF, ePub, etc.


Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

Editors work in Microsoft Word

Lower training costs

Freelance editors are practical

Structure enforced prior to final pages

Disadvantages

Requires running application in-house for XML


XML Quality

XML is not free

Neither is XML quality

PDF

Create it, proof it, publish it

XML

Create it, proof it, publish from it

XML-first and XML-middle facilitate XML quality

PDF created from XML


XML Quality +

What's between the tags is important

What's not visible (metadata) is more important

Create proofing tools

False color proofing

Schematron scripts

Check valid year

Check valid designation

Check copyright element not empty

Check anything that can be checked


XML Quality Procedures

XML requires constant quality checks

Develop tools

Run tools on every XML file

Provide tools to third party vendors

"Trust but verify"


A Quick Word on DTDs

There is no standard DTD for standard

publication

Four main choices for "text" documents

TEI

DITA

DocBook

JATS and BITS (aka NLM DTD)

How do I choose?


DTD Selection Criteria

Your content

Content structures

Metadata

Sections, paragraphs, annexes, notes, bibliography

Lists, tables, figures, equations, footnotes

Special: Normative references, terms and definitions

Current vs. historical content

Your XML use-cases

Tools you may want to use


TEI DTD

Origins: Academic community (Brown University)

Widely used in humanities

Great for historical materials

E.g. preserving line break/pagination information

Poetry

Least-known by suppliers

Weakest commercial tool support


DITA DTD

Origins: IBM

Widely used in corporations

DITA is designed to write discrete, typed topics

for reuse in multiple publications

Great for proposals, internal documentation

Somewhat known by suppliers

Excellent commercial tool support

OASIS standard


DocBook DTD

Origins: Technical publication (O’Reilly)

Great for technical and trade books

Very good commercial tool support

FrameMaker, ArborText

Well-known by suppliers

OASIS standard


JATS and BITS

Origins: Scholarly journal archiving & publication

Widely used by journal publishers

Great for scholarly journals and books

Well-known by suppliers

Very good commercial tool support

NISO standard


DTD Commonalities

Any of these DTDs work well for simple

standards

All of these DTDs are designed for customization

Any of these DTDs will need customization for

use by standards publishers


ISO DTD

Reviewed TEI, DocBook, JATS, DITA

Adopted JATS and modified

Metadata for standards

TBX namespace for terms and definitions

Links to standards

http://www.iso.org/schema/isosts/


A Few Other Important Points

Figures

Math

Inter-standard links


Figures in an XML Workflow

Graphics are separate from the XML

Image files referenced from XML

Figure standardization

Format (type, quality, size)

Automated Proofing tools

Names (e.g. ISO-12083-1994-F1)

Keep figures outside of Word

Quality problems with extracted figures


Math in an XML Workflow

Author with MathType

Word 2007+ "Equation Builder"

Convert to MathType

Gets most consistent XML results

Include MathML2 in XML

And also math images with XML reference

Allows easy math rendering on any platform


Inter-Publisher Links


Creating Links

Bi-lateral agreements

Imagine creating an agreement with every SDO or

publisher your standards might cite

Technical implementation: n unique APIs

This is a lot of work

But wait… there’s a better solution


Digital Object Identifier

ISO 26324

Persistent discoverable authoritative links

Example for a journal

Thompson, M., et al.: The International Harmonized Protocol

for the Proficiency Testing of Analytical Chemistry

Laboratories (IUPAC Technical Report); Pure Appl. Chem., Vol.

78, No. 1, pp. 145-196, 2006

doi:10.1351/pac200678010145

Resolved at http://dx.doi.org/10.1351/pac200678010145


Resolved DOI


DOI Advantages

Supported objects Journals

Books

Conferences

Standards

Reports

Data

Single source for links

Publisher controlled

Guides read to authoritative version

More information at CrossRef: www.crossref.org


Where To Go Next…

Evaluate and set business goals

Business requirements drive technical decisions

Learn more about XML

Mulberry Technologies (http://www.mulberrytech.com/)

Talk to XML-savvy publishing organizations

Hire an XML expert or consultant

Don't reinvent the wheel


XML Project Startup

Develop and Document XML markup standards

Based on business goals

Select an XML workflow

Based on business goals

Build XML QA tools

Based on business rules

Start a pilot project

Re-evaluate results and fine-tune

Start XML workflow


XML For Standards Publishers

Brings new production efficiencies

Brings new products to customers

Brings new business opportunities

XML solutions are improving daily

Now is the time for XML


Questions?

Bruce Rosenblum

Inera Incorporated

+1 (617) 932-1932

[email protected]

www.inera.com

Documents

XML Publication Workflows for Standards › ... · Clean up manuscript and style paragraphs ... DITA is designed to write discrete, typed topics for reuse in multiple publications